Here’s why we celebrated today: Thirty delicious (mostly unpredicted) millimetres of rain. We’re guessing 30mm. Normally we can guess the amount before we even go out to the rain gauge. One or two mills wets the deck. Five will put a puddle in the driveway. And if there’s a puddle over near the gate, we … Continue reading And by morning we had a new playground
It almost seems too strong a word. Grief. But I can’t think of any other way to describe how I felt for the entire first term of this year with both girls now at school. For the first two days of term, I was all excited, springing around the house talking about how I was … Continue reading I think I just emerged from a chrysalis
In Year 8, no amount of mousse (or gel for that matter) was giving me the tightness of the Nicole Kidman curl. So I had my hair permed. Source for photo 1: Sticky-paged photo album full of really dorky shots of my friends and I patting kangaroos on a school camp. All with the same … Continue reading Bring back the spiral perm
'If this jigsaw was easy, it wouldn’t be any fun. Because it’s a challenge, we feel really proud when we finish it.' 'Doing magic tricks isn’t easy. If it was, we’d all be magicians.' These are the types of things you’d hear if you were a fly on our lounge room wall. On Friday, I … Continue reading For all those who are wondering how my novel is going
Maeve has waited her whole life for this day. Today she started school. Last night she set out her things. A new bag, new knickers, new socks, new shoes, a new hair clip and a hand-me-down dress (that has seen a few years of school already, and quite a few kinder sessions last year too … Continue reading Mother duck said ‘Quack, quack, quack, quack.’ But none of the five little ducks came back
In one of the writing courses I did last month, I learned that there are two types of writers: plotters and pantsers. Plotters plot out their story before they start. They probably have an outline for the book, detailing the twists and turns so that they know what happens before they even write the first sentence. … Continue reading So quiet at this time of year. Not much on at all. Said no-one ever.
What’s one thing you wish you could change about yourself? Unless you’re interested in surgery, botox or dragon’s blood cream (which has the same results as surgery, didn’t you know?), you’re stuck with the way you look. Maybe I could lose a few kilos or tone up, but I’m not going to use my one … Continue reading What’s one thing you wish you could change about yourself?
Today I’m thinking about what I could do to make the world a better place. This isn’t the sort of thing I usually think about when I’m making kids’ lunches (usually then I’m thinking about why I didn’t go to bed earlier). Or when I’m driving the girls to town (contemplating then why I didn’t … Continue reading What could you do to make the world a better place?
Today is World Prematurity Day when we focus everyone's attention on the global problem of premature birth. Today I thought a lot about Elsie, about all of the premature babies born around the world, and especially about the amazing medical teams that do all they can for these babies and their families. Last year I … Continue reading World Prematurity Day
